Slow Cooked Beef Curry

Ingredients

• Oil
• 800g Gravy Beef or Osso Bucco, cut into 2.5cm pieces.

I prefer the Osso Bucco as the bone marrow adds a smooth texture and buttery flavour to the gravy. Bone marrow is also essentially beneficial for your health and strengthens the immune system.

• 2 brown onions, finely chopped
• 2 potatoes peeled and chopped into 2cm pieces
• 2 stalks celery thinly sliced
• 2 x 400gr can diced Italian tomatoes
• 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 4 small hot chillies, finely chopped
• 2.5cm piece fresh root ginger in curry grated
• 3 tsp ground cumin
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 2 tsp ground turmeric
• 2 tsp garam masala
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp cardamom
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 beef stock cube
• 2 bay leaves

Home grown Pequin chilli peppers

To Serve:

• Greek style yoghurt
• Fresh chopped coriander
• Finely diced Lebanese cucumber
• Pappadums

Method

• Heat a little oil in a frying pan and fry the beef pieces for 4-5 minutes, or until browned all over. 
• Place whole diced tomatoes in slow cooker, then the browned meat.
• Heat remaining oil in a frying pan and fry the onions for five minutes, then add the garlic, chilli and ginger and fry for another 2-3 minutes. Add the spices apart from garam masala and fry for another minute, then tip the mixture into the slow cooker.
• Add half of the empty diced tomato tin with water, pour into fry pan, add crumbled stock cube and stir to dissolve and soak up remaining spices before adding to slow cooker.
• Add Bay leaves and stir everything together, making sure everything is covered in liquid and cook for 8 hours on low.
• About 30 minutes before serving, stir in garam masala.
• Plate curry on a bed of steamed rice, topped with a dollop of yoghurt, finely diced Lebanese cucumber and chopped coriander.
• Serve with Pappadums

Variations:

I sometimes use sweet potato in place of ordinary potatoes.
May like to add more chilli - depending on your taste.

Stuffed Roast Butternut Pumpkin

Tonight I thought I'd creative and trial a couple of vegetable side dishes to add to our Christmas buffet.

Butternut Pumpkin

Butternut pumpkin is always a favorite, so I halved one lengthwise, scooped out the seeds, rubbed a little virgin oil and seasoned with salt and cracked pepper, before roasting for a little over an hour at 180 degrees (fan forced oven).

In a bowl, I combined:

1/2 finely chopped red onion
1 garlic clove crushed
1 tbsp fresh rosemary
1/2 tsp ground paprika
1/2 cup breadcrumbs (I use gluten-free)
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
1 cup tasty grated cheese
1 egg lightly beaten

Mixed all ingredients, using only 1/2 the grated cheese.

Removed butternut pumpkin from oven, spooned mixture into hollows, then returned to oven for a further 15 minutes.
Removed once again, sprinkled remaining grated cheese over top, then popped back into oven for a few minutes until cheese melted.


I also had a zucchini in the fridge, so I halved it lengthwise, scooped out the seeds and filled it with the remaining breadcrumb mixture.

Having placed the halves on a tray, I popped it into the oven to roast for 25 minutes, then removed the tray, sprinkled a little grated cheese on top and returned it to the oven for a few minutes to melt.

Roast Stuffed Zucchini 

Whilst the pumpkin and zucchini were roasting, I roasted a small sweet potato, cut into 1 cm slices and remaining red onion, sliced, so it cooked nice and crispy for 40 minutes.







I also added a few halved cherry tomatoes during the last 10 minutes of roasting.

This made for a scrumptious, healthy gluten free, vegetarian meal and I will definitely cook the stuffed roast butternut pumpkin on Christmas day. 

Roasted Stuffed Butternut Pumpkin